Nanotechnology simply put what is it?

[bjmyanks]

I joined this site two days ago and have been hooked ever since. I decided what a great way to learn about random things. My new question is, What is nanotechnology?

[ecoli]

exactly what it sounds like... technology on a really small scale.

[bascule]

Kurzweil defines it as any technological constructions smaller than 50nm in size. I believe that definition was purloined from K. Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation.

[calbiterol]

Wouldn't this be more appropriate in engineering?

 

Nanotechnology in its more mature form would manifest itself in microscopic robots able to both replicate themselves and (ultimately) manipulate atomic- and sub-atomic particles.

 

Which has so many different applications.

 

Currently, though, it's more of a materials type of thing - creating substances (like carbon nanotubes) with an organized lattice structure and superior physical qualities.

[Skye]

It can be computer science I suppose, a great deal of reseach aimed at producing new kinds of transistors and circuits and whatnot is called nanotech. This can be carbon tubes or organic molecules or modern lithography techniques or whatever. Whether you call that engineering or computer science (or physics or chemistry or materials science or ...) seems to depend on what you got your degrees in. And that's the thing about nanotechnology, it refers to range of sometimes unrelated technologies in different fields, so it's very diverse. I think it's characterised, quite interestingly, by the combination of both classical and quantum phenomena, due to the scale it is at. But that's just my opinion.

[swansont]

Nanotechnology in its more mature form would manifest itself in microscopic robots able to both replicate themselves and (ultimately) manipulate atomic- and sub-atomic particles.

 

 

Robots is too general a term - you can have micro electrical-mechanical (MEMS) devices, but the idea of a self-contained, autonomous device made of just a few atoms is science fiction.

 

Sub-atomic? No, I don't think so. Heisenberg difficulties.

[aswokei]

Nanotechnology is and will be a huge deal in the future.

 

Computers have allowed programmers to be creative and express their genius in ways that were never before conceivable. A computer programmer can do nearly anything, changing a world of code, changing the functionality of software and related devices.

 

Nanotechnology is going to bring that to the physical realm.

[5614]

If a computer processor could be built using nanotech then you could get hand held "desktop" computers. This is a realistic possibility but is a very long way off.

[BhavinB]

If we stick to the definition that nanotechnology is construction on a sub 100 nm scale, then there are some interesting statistics.

 

For example, common myth is that nanotech is leading to robots on that scale, when rather the majority of research and spending is more towards materials with 'nano' properties (Like nanocrystalline materials).

 

The next biggest research area in nanotech is nanofabrication i.e. electronics. we're well into that regime with intel already setting up a 65 nm fabrication process. But in research, linewidths of 10 nm have already been reliably fabricated.

 

And then there are some people working on...robots. But be aware, all these robots are stupid and cannot be controlled. Having controllable 'robots' will not be realised in our lifetimes.

[MattC]

"If a computer processor could be built using nanotech then you could get hand held "desktop" computers. This is a realistic possibility but is a very long way off."

 

I was under the impression that we already had them! Sure, they can't play games that were made last year, but they are more poweful than the desktop I played games on 10 years ago!

 

"And then there are some people working on...robots. But be aware, all these robots are stupid and cannot be controlled. Having controllable 'robots' will not be realised in our lifetimes."

I beg to differ! I agree that robots that are intelligent and truly nano, in that they are built from the molecule up and don't involve distances or lengths greater than a few molecules, except when desired, are a good ways off, but I'm sure there will be numerous robots that can barely be seen with the naked eye within my lifetime! I have no evidence, of course ... just a hunch:p

[BhavinB]

When you say "barely seen with the naked eye" could mean a robot thats a micron (or several) in dimensions. I think such a 'robot' is more likely within 2 decades or so. But when we say robots that are sub-micron, well, thats asking too much from scientists.

 

True nanotechnology lies in using nanoscale devices and materials for our benefit. For example, I'm working on a quantum dot semiconductor laser. Although the laser itself is millimeters in length, the dots themselves are nano scale making the device "nanotechnology". This is how we'll see nanotechnology affect our lives.

 

I beg to differ! I agree that robots that are intelligent and truly nano, in that they are built from the molecule up and don't involve distances or lengths greater than a few molecules, except when desired, are a good ways off, but I'm sure there will be numerous robots that can barely be seen with the naked eye within my lifetime! I have no evidence, of course ... just a hunch:p

[swansont]

If a computer processor could be built using nanotech then you could get hand held "desktop" computers. This is a realistic possibility but is a very long way off.

 

Computer processors are already nanotech devices by some definitions. And that's manufacturing. In research, scales like that were reachable 10 years ago. I did some 125 nm-scale fabrication in 1992.

[5614]

True... it wasn't quite what I meant though, I meant more nanocomputers.

 

When I said nano processors I gues I meant the dimensions of the processor are measured in nm (and not like 10^9 nm either!)

[herme3]

What about the iPod nano? Would that be considered nanotechnology?

 

If a computer processor could be built using nanotech then you could get hand held "desktop" computers. This is a realistic possibility but is a very long way off.

 

They already make powerful hand held computers that run the full version of Windows XP, and other modern applications except for games with very detailed graphics. I've seen some good ones that cost only $2,000 which is the same amount I paid for my notebook computer.